Twitter Tips For Beginners (1): Getting Started

For those of you who are new to Twitter, I'm going to write a few posts explaining some Twitterisms to help you navigate the Twitterverse.  (Yes, believe it or not, Twitter pros, some people and pets are just joining the party!)

If you haven't already, sign up for a Twitter account at www.twitter.com. You'll need an email address and a photo you want to use for yourself on your computer, and you may have to be creative coming up with a Twitter ID (name), since there are SO many Twitter accounts now, but you'll think of something cool.

Just don't make your Twitter ID too long, because you only get 140 characters per tweet and since folks have to use your Twitter name to address you or mention you in a tweet, you don't want it to take up too much real estate!

My Twitter ID is cokiethecat, written as @cokiethecat. That's eleven letters (not including the @ symbol) and I wouldn't make yours much longer than that. The shorter the better for Twitter!
There's all sorts of Profile info you can fill in and set your Settings, but that's pretty basic. I'll cover some of it later. Right now, let's get you tweeting!

First, you want to get some followers. Go to your Who To Follow page and type something you're interested in, in the search bar, like, say... "Animals." Hundreds of Twitter accounts will come up for animal associations, zoos, etc. Type in "Anipals" and you'll get hundreds of 'online animals' like me. 

Or you can hit "Find Friends" and find your friends using your email accounts.

You can also look for the "Follow me on Twitter" or "t" buttons on blogs and websites you like and click on them. Sometimes people have their Twitter name on their Facebook information page, too.

Once you've followed a few people, take a look at their followers. Click on someone's name or their picture (pic, photo, avatar, icon), then look in the upper right side of their profile page to see who they're "following." Check out those folks and if they look interesting, follow them, too. Go back to your "Home" page and you'll see the tweets of the folks you're following.

I follow people I comes across who tweet about family and kid stuff (they're often interested in pets), the Lakers (just sayin'), and random folks I just happen to find interesting.

Every few days, check your Profile page to see who's following you, and if you want to follow them back. Some of the people you followed will be there, but there will be people you didn't follow, too. Some will be marketers trying to sell you something, which you may or may not be interested in following back (or you can block them with the drop down menu from the little person symbol to the right of their name on your followers list, but most of them will be people (or pets) like you!

Little drop down menu man

I follow back most everyone who follows me, except the 'bots' which automatically follow and re-tweet (RT) every tweet containing a specific word, like @thebotlebowski, which tweets a quote from "The Big Lebowski" every time someone tweets the word 'dude' (LOL), and the girls who want to show me what they look like naked. You can also use the little drop down menu man to report spam.

OK. You're signed up. You're signed in. You're following some folks. Some folks are following you. Don't forget to follow me! @cokiethecat 

Ready, set, TWEET! Say hello! Say "This is my first tweet ever!" Say you're brand new to Twitter and ask whoever is reading your tweet to follow you! Say hi to me and ask me to follow you. 

Let the tweeting commence!
When you're ready, head on over to Part 2.
Twitter Tips for Beginners (2): Hashtags
There's also a Twitter Tips tab at the top of my blog.

Questions? Comments? Corrections?

Please leave a comment below.

Next up:

#FollowFriday Revised Oct. 5, 2011: Next up - Hashtags


   =^..^=
Cokie the Cat